Guardian 26,260 – Paul

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A fun puzzle from Paul today…                

…with lot of references (some of which I may have missed) to the King (Elvis Presley), and a side order of Queen. Thanks to Paul.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. STRATUM In casual style, play keeping at a certain level (7)
AT in STRUM (play [guitar] in a casual style)
5. BALLAST Extra weight, dammit, about a pound (7)
A L in BLAST
9. CATER Put on food for queens (5)
CAT (queen) + ER (another one)
10. OIL SLICKS Some disastrous films noirs? (3,6)
Cryptic definition – an oil slick is a “black film”, and may be a disaster
11. NORMALISED Nation into old language, Germany as usual (10)
MALI in NORSE + D[eutschland]
12. TON Century forward then? (3)
TON is “not back”, i.e. forward
14. DISCRIMINATE Judge record speed, about one minute (12)
DISC + I MIN in RATE
18. UNREMARKABLE Real number around about a thousand, back as standard (12)
Reverse of A K in (REAL NUMBER)*
21. HIS Halter top is not hers (3)
H[alter] + IS
22. HEATHENISH Impious characters in Arimathea then? I shudder! (10)
Hidden in arimatHEA THEN I SHudder
25. ONE VISION Queen’s king not left to stuff vegetable (3,6)
E[L]VIS (the King) in ONION – the definition, as elsewhere in this puzzle, indicates that it’s a song by Queen
26. EULER Mathematician bending rule about first of equations (5)
E[quations] in RULE* – Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), after whom the fundamental constant e, also called Euler’s number, is named
27. METONYM Cruise around state east of Maine — there’s another word for it (7)
ME (Maine) + NY (state) in TOM [Cruise, actor]
28. SYNERGY Adulterer, say, gutless guy in collaboration (7)
Homophone of “sinner” + G[U]Y
Down
1. SECOND Flash is silver (6)
Double definition – a short time and position in sports etc
2,8. RETURN TO SENDER King’s son, utter freak wrapped in plaster (6,2,6)
(SON UTTER)* in RENDER – one of Elvis’s most famous recordings
3. TERRA FIRMA Land about right, a farmer needing it cultivated (5,5)
(R A FARMER IT)*
4. MAORI I ramble, rolling tongue (5)
Reverse of I ROAM – Maori is an official language of New Zealand
5. BALLERINA Party coming up, I learn moves to become a dancer (9)
Reverse of LAB[our] + (I LEARN)*
6. LA-LA All shook up, a land in California? (2-2)
ALL* + A – La-La Land is a nickname of Los Angeles (and All Shook Up is another Elvis song)
7. ALCATRAZ Bay cooler? (8)
Cryptic definition – Alcatraz prison (=cooler) is on the island of the same name in San Francisco Bay
13. BILLIE JEAN King‘s pop song (6,4)
Double definition – tennis player and song by Michael Jackson (and not Elvis, as the surface might suggest)
15. CARPE DIEM Record moving up into top 1,000 — It’s Now Or Never (5,4)
EP reversed in CARDIE (cardigan, top) + M. Carpe Diem (from an ode by Horace) is usually translated as “seize the day”, but “It’s now or never” (another Elvis reference) has the same sense.
16. MUSHROOM Parent welcoming a little less conversation with young Australian swell (8)
SH (perhaps an instruction for “a little less conversation!”) + ROO (young Australian) in MUM. “Roo” is not necessarily a young Australian, unless you think of the A. A. Milne character
17. BRISKEST Chance to be among the finest, most energetic (8)
RISK in BEST
19. KILLER Queen’s with queen, as king more poorly (6)
K + ILLER – reference to the Queen song
20. WHERRY Question about stray barge (6)
ERR (to stray) in WHY
23. TUNIS Capital city is under revolutionary enthusiast (5)
Reverse of NUT (enthusiast) + IS
24. FINN Close to the French, north European (4)
FIN (French “end”, “close”) + N

38 comments on “Guardian 26,260 – Paul”

  1. Finally! Some references to one of my favourite bands that turned out to be references to Queen, and not Queen Elizabeth 😀 19 and 25 were gimmes after I figured that out.

    Thank you Paul!

  2. I usually refrain from commenting on Paul’s puzzles in detail, because his ‘trademark’ style does not appeal to me, but this puzzle was an absolute joy to solve. There were too many superb clues to list them all, but the ones for ‘carpe diem’ and ‘metonym’ really appealed to me. While I had a number of the solutions quite quickly, it took me some time to sort out all the parsings, which (I think) I eventually managed to achieve, and with considerable pleasure. I thought that it was a pity that ‘heathenish’ was so readily found from the checking letters as it was (in my view) a tour de force surface.
    I know that other solvers always delight in Paul’s puzzles, and I would never dispute that he consistently produces masterly clues, but I am very happy to record how much I appreciated today’s offering: even the popular music references were fine for me: my era you see.

  3. Re. 16d, ‘ A Little Less Conversation’ is another Elvis song (a posthumous hit if I recall correctly), and Joey would probably be better for a young Australian, but I’m not complaining.

  4. Great puzzle. The blog helped parse RETURN TO SENDER – I wasn’t able to see it though I got the answer. Thanks to Paul and Andrew!

    Not fully convinced about ‘as usual’ = normalised. Normal, yes, but normalised has the connotation of the process that made something (or brought it back to) normal.

  5. Thanks, Andrew. A really fun puzzle, as you say, and very clever with it.

    It took a little while for the theme[s] to emerge – 2,8, for instance was, at first, totally unfathomable – but, once it did, unravelling it was a delight. I loved the way Paul managed to combine the two threads in 25ac and then sent me up the garden path with BILLIE JEAN. Great stuff!

    Like George, I particularly liked the clues for CARPE DIEM and METONYM.

    [Andrew, you’ve a tiny typo in 14ac: it’s I MIN for one minute.]

    Many thanks to Paul for a highly entertaining and enjoyable puzzle.

  6. Thanks, Andrew. I found the top half of this a little bit hard and, unusually for Paul, short on smiles. Clever, though. 🙂 OIL SLICKS was my favourite.

    Eileen beat me to the typo but there is one other tiny one: MAIL should be MALI.

  9. Thanks to Paul for maintaining the degree of difficulty and to Andrew for the blog.

    I managed to get 25a and 19d from the wordplay, without (happily) knowing anything about Queen (sorry Steve B) and 13d from the tennis (second appearance this week) probably helped by not knowing much about Michael Jackson.

    I am old enough to have been too young to escape Presley entirely, but I preferred Bill Haley and Chuck Berry – when can we expect references to them in Guardian crosswords?

  11. @10: I think that was unnecessary. Many of the clues do become much easier if you know about Queen or about Elvis.
    Normally, if a bit of music-related (or any other field-specific) general knowledge is required, it appears in either the definition or the wordplay. In 25a, it shows up in both parts of the clue: the definition is just “Queen’s” *and* the wordplay needs one to know that Elvis was referred to as the King. I can quite see why someone not familiar with either would have trouble there.

  12. Great crossword that took a good deal of unravelling.

    Thanks Andrew; I never did parse TON properly. Anyone else try ‘scratch’ for 1a?

    I was a bit puzzled by the possible KILL=queen until I finally realised it was one of Queen’s. 🙁

    I missed TOM=Cruise in 27 for a long time. Oh, it all looks so simple once the grid is filled, but not before!

  13. Thanks, Andrew

    I found this rather hard going but very satisfying. I’m not sure why I found it unusually tricky; as Robi says @12, it all looks so simple when it’s completed.

    Excellent puzzle, with a lot of very clever clues, though not all the surfaces are up to Paul’s usual standard (Bay cooler??). The only thing missing is the ribaldry…

    Particular favourites were 1a, 5a, 10a, 12a (a variant on Paul’s characteristic analogy clue), 5d, 13d (LOI, as I was searching for a song by Elvis, BB or Jonathan – nice misdirection!), 15d (particularly splendid), 19d.

  14. Both Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson are kings…of pop! A pity that the puzzle was not made more difficult by the inclusion of some musical queens such as Aretha Franklin or Ella Fitzgerald, but an excellent puzzle nevertheless from Paul, as I always expect. I especially liked “metonym”.

    Thanks, Andrew, and thanks, Paul.

  16. I think basic Elvis knowledge is a reasonable ask, including the fact that he was (and to may, still is) The King. Michael Jackson being the self-styled King of Pop was just a mad attempt to get himself on a par with Elvis (dream on…) but the phrase was relentlessly used so I think it’s also fair game. In my opinion, however, a clue that required knowing that Jerry Lee Lewis was called The Killer would be drifting into “specialist knowledge”. We all draw our lines in different places, of course. Good puzzle – a lot of the non-themed clues were very good.

    I occasionally compile and present quizzes, and like Crosswords they’re a fight that the setter hopes to lose. Any fool can set a quiz where nobody knows any of the answers. The trick is that when he hear an answers that he didn’t know, or got wrong, the participant should think he should have known it. I have attended quizzes where there have been rounds on elf-lore (yes, really) and current business affairs (“Come on, this has been in the financial pages all week!”). Fortunately crossword setters have editors who can objectively assess what’s fair game and what isn’t.

  17. It’s been a good week, with 3 crackers in a row. I really enjoyed this, and found it challenging throughout without ever getting completely stuck – had the theme just been Elvis it would have been even harder for me – Queen and Michael Jackson were more my era. There were some nice misdirections for example BILLIE JEAN not being an Elvis number and “east of Maine”. Last in (after I finally understanding UNREMARKABLE were CARPE DIEM (probably my favourite) and BILLIE JEAN. Also thought the ONE VISION Clue was clever…

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  19. grandpuzzler @18 – in my experience ton in that sense is most often used by cricket journalists trying to avoid overusing the word century, and I’m not surprised that this is unfamiliar outside Britain…

  20. I agree with Ian Payn’s comments @16. Sadly, today I found I was on the wrong side of the line both for the themed and for some of the non-themed clues (eg 15d) and I lost interest when less than half way through.

  21. Thanks Paul and Andrew
    “Heathenish” might have been obvious to some, but I did get as far as looking up “theathenis” in the dictionary, as I thought that “characters” indicated a plural (there wasn’t an entry).

    There is something in an obscure area of mathematics called “Euler’s Rule”, so there is another layer in 26a.

  22. beery hiker @ 19
    “Ton-up” motorcyclists were (are?) a hazard on the road – also perhaps not in the US?

  23. Been out and unable to post for a bit but just wanted to add my appreciation for this puzzle. Completion of top half was delayed by my spotting that ALL BLACKS fitted 10a until I ran out of likely languages at 4d.

  24. Brilliant. I’m more of a Schubert and Brahms man than a Presley and Jackson one, but this was a tour de force. Bravo, Mr Halpern!

    Is there really a reference to Jerry Lee Lewis?

  25. Trailman @23 – me too (I’d forgotten that when I commented earlier), so Maori to prove it wrong was very appropriate!

  26. A fun puzzle, thanks again Paul but I do not understand what sort of clue Bay Cooler is. If the bay was also called Alcatraz it would make sense but this looks like a Quick Crossword clue.

  27. Andrew: you’ve omitted MUM in explaining the parsing of 16d 🙂

    As with @23 & @25 I had ALL BLACKS – which does refer to fully exposed (i.e disastrous) photo negatives
    I liked the oblique allusions to Elvis in the surfaces e.g. 5a,10a,6d
    ONE VISION is rather obscure as a Queen song – definitely needing devotee knowledge IMHO.

    Thanks to Andrew & Paul

  28. As well as not seeing past ALL BLACKS, I was hindered by putting LANE in 24d (LA+N+E with definition as “close” as in street). Obviously if the answer’s FINN it’s a much better clue!

  29. Best Paul for ages. I really enjoyed this.

    No quibbles with any of the clues. I too had the ALL BLACKS block but didn’t actually ever enter it!

    Didn’t know that Elvis was “The King” and never heard of “Queen”? Where have you been? Surely even somebody under the age of 20 would have come across this?

    Thanks to Andrew and Paul

  30. Yes, one of the better Pauls.
    And certainly one of the harder ones.
    In the last two years or so, I found his puzzles top-notch as ever but relatively easy.

    Nice theme (Kings & Queens), well worked out.

    No smut this time which is a kind of relief (be aware that Paul could have opted for ‘scrotum’ in 1ac ….).

    Only one technical thing I am not happy about: the false decapitalisation of ‘king’ in 25ac. Elvis really was the King – although not for me. I’d rather prefer Queen in those Killer Queen days.

    Many thanks for adding to the fun, Andrew, and hope to see you again on Saturday.

  31. Thanks Andrew and Paul

    Another pretty hard one for me, I’m afraid, even after I saw the themes. Billie Jean was last one in.

    But it was good to finish it correctly and solve the unknowns from the word play.

    10a was a particularly good cd.

  32. A fine crossword, full of splendid clues. Oil Slicks was as perfect as it comes..the (mis)direction being excellent but it’s hardly fair to single one of maybe 10 lovely clues – a great slow burner.

  33. Paul is one of my favourite setters but I did miss his naughty bits today. Didn’t have a problem with kings and Queens of music but it was very tricky nevertheless. I was completely thrown by 9a put in cater but changed my mind and decided it was don because of put on and thought it could be doner kebab doh! However loved carpe diem and saw ton quickly but fooled by 11 a and 27a.

  34. As Andrew says in relation to 16 Down, the clue would have been more precise if it had read small or short Australian rather than young, since roo is merely a shortened form. A young Australian in this context would be a joey. Still, at least I got that one fairly quickly, unlike some of the king and queen obscurities, which remain impenetrable even after the explanation.

  35. A day late to this one. Excellent puzzle, and it made a change to see Paul going with a theme even though I really like his usual style. I agree with those who thought that this was much harder than a lot of recent Paul puzzles. BILLIE JEAN was my LOI when I finally realised which “King” the clue was referring to.

  36. Aussiepedant @34, your mum never read you the right children’s books … though Kanga and Baby Roo are probably better known to Brits than to actual Aussies!

  37. I’m rather late to the party as Thursday was a bit hectic. I managed all this without aids, having twigged early on that Elvis was the “King” (though I’ve never understood why), though it was a struggle in parts. I was held up a bit by my hope that the “Queen” might be Ella Fitzgerald, which would have made for a more helpful theme. I really don’t think pop music and crosswords mix very well, as even those solvers who like both seem most at home with the the music of their own particular eras. At least jazz is timeless, though not as much as Schubert and Brahms.

  38. Got all of it, with only very little cheating. But I found this puzzle very difficult. New to Guardian. English is not my first language. Don’t know a single song by Elvis, Queens, Michael Jackson. Grew up in South India. Someday there will be a puzzle with M S Viswanathan, Ilayaraja and T M Sounderarajan as answers and I will be awesome that day. Till then, will bide my time.

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